1605

Gunpowder plot foiled

To this day effigies of Guy Fawkes arestill burned in England everyNovember 5thOn November 5th, trigger man Guy Fawkes is discovered in the cellars of the houses of parliament with a massive quantity of gunpowder ready to be detonated. Had the plot been carried out it would have been as significant an act of religious terrorism for its time as 9/11 was for ours.

All the Catholic conspirators, Catesby, Tresham and Winter have connections to Warwickshire. Catesby will die fighting, while the other conspirators are hunted down, arrested, tried and executed. Powder Day, November 5th, will forever after be Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night, where the conspirators' hit man - and sometimes the Pope - is burned in effigy.

As a direct result, after a period of comparative calm following James I's accession, new measures to curb the religious freedoms of Catholics are employed.